D-G Drops Ball on Stadium Story

After being scooped by the Northwest Arkansas Times, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette misinformed readers about state law as it pertains to convention centers and state turnback funds, then buried its “correction” inside in the next day’s newspaper.

The first articles appeared above the fold on Page 1 in both newspapers only days before the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees was to vote on the Arkansas Razorbacks stadium issue.

On Feb. 8, the Times’ Maylon Rice broke the story. He quoted Frank Broyles, the UA athletic director, and state Sen. David Malone (D-Fayetteville) saying it appeared that the War Memorial Stadium Commission had inflated out-of-state attendance numbers for Razorbacks games at the Little Rock stadium. State law allows convention centers (which War Memorial qualifies as being) to receive $165.90 per day per tourist attracted to the facility from out of state.

The next day, a reporter for the D-G wrote “The law does not specify that the tourist has to come from outside Arkansas.” The statement, which wasn’t attributed to anyone, made it sound as if the reporter had read the law.

The following day, Feb. 10, both newspapers quoted State Code 14-171-209, saying the law in question applied only to “non-residents of the state.” That meant Broyles was right when quoted by Rice on Feb 8 and only out-of-state visitors can count toward the turnback funds (and thus the statistics for War Memorial Stadium). Rice’s Feb. 10 story appeared on Page 1. Since the D-G made a mistake the previous day, the newspaper hid the follow-up story on Page 10A. The D-G follow-up was written by the same reporter who did the Feb. 9 story.

Of course, all of this was fodder for Mike Masterson, editor of the Times. In a Feb. 13 editorial, he praised Rice and attacked the D-G for insinuating Rice had gotten the story wrong.

In its Feb. 9 story, the D-G quoted Malone saying he hadn’t “made an accusation that the commission’s claims for state funds were based on padded numbers.” Then the state newspaper turned the spotlight on Rice, who said he stuck by the numbers in his article.

Masterson was so proud of his staff, he had placards made and posted on Times newspaper boxes Feb. 10 saying “Broyles was right.”

With its main offices in Little Rock and Springdale, it appears that the D-G has had a split personality when it comes to the stadium issue. The newpaper’s reporters in Northwest Arkansas seemed to favor bringing all the games to Fayetteville. The Little Rock crew was obviously in favor of keeping games at War Memorial Stadium.